


Villain's Overture

by PailetteHazel



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, Fairytale Themes, Inspired by Don't Make Me, Origin Story, Pre-Split imagination, Swordfighting, The Imagination
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-08
Updated: 2019-11-08
Packaged: 2021-01-25 12:30:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21356293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PailetteHazel/pseuds/PailetteHazel
Summary: [Overture] noun1. An orchestral piece at the beginning of an opera or play.2. An introduction to something more substantial.The true story of Creativity's split and the origin of the villain of the imagination. Spoiler Alert: the ending ain't happy.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 16





	1. Happily Ever After

My name is the Queen. I have never needed another name: this one covers all I am and all I will ever be.

And today is my wedding day, the happiest day of my life. I feel like I did not truly exist before today, as sappy as that sounds. As I walked onto the balcony, next to the prince of my dreams, I couldn’t help but smile. I stept carefully forward in my fluffy wedding dress and waved at the enormous crowd of subjects who had gathered here today. The flowers in my hand and the crown on my head fit perfectly. Yes, I knew for certain: this is what I was meant to do, who I was meant to be. Sure to live happily ever after. 

After the balcony greeting, the two of us went back into the palace. We met the guards, and I got introduced to my ladies in waiting: Anna, one introduced herself. Valerie, the other added. I was grateful for their company: the palace seemed too big to spend all your time alone in. We chatted for a bit, and I quickly felt at ease, as if us three had been friends for a long time already.

The king, on the other hand.. He was secretive, often away. Ruling the kingdom, I assumed. It was not my task, so I kept my silence and did what I was supposed to do. I wasn’t going to bother him with questions. After all, he was still my husband, the ruler of our kingdom. That was never going to change.

The days after the wedding passed in a haze. The King and I spend time together: we drank delicious wine at banquets, waltzed to enchanting orchestral music and modelled for the royal portrait. A picture perfect couple, for visitors from our kingdom and beyond to gawk at. What the painting didn’t show, however, was that in-between our moments of togetherness I had often roamed the hallways of the castle alone. Despite the riches the royal life was much emptier than I had thought. No diamonds, rubies or pearls encased in gold and silver were going to make up for that. 

It was during one of those posing sessions however, that I noticed that there might have been a deeper reason for my loneliness.When it became visible that there was more to the King than one might assume at first glance.

“Alright!” The painter in his bright blue gown said with a nod. “Thank you, your majesties.” The King and I relaxed, breaking the position we had been posing in. Despite the fact that we were not able to talk during the painting, this was the closest we had been all day, and I felt happy for that: there were days that the King had seemingly not been inside the palace at all. But as I adoringly looked up to my partner, something happened. He smiled back, calmer and more reserved than me and at the same time I saw a red spark flash in his eyes. “Wait, what was that?” I frowned. “What do you mean?” ” That spark! In your eyes!” ”You must be imagining things, my dearest.” he responded with an air of dismissal. 

Maybe I should have insisted. But he had already shrugged me off and approached the painter for the final details. “Maybe I did imagine it..” I thought to myself, folding my hands in front of me. The King and I formed the perfect fairytale couple after all. 

Days passed, and even the moments that the King and I saw each other became scarce. At some point, it even felt like he was purposely avoiding me. I confided with my ladies in waiting, telling them about my concerns. “You were made for each other.” they told me. “Just be patient, and soon enough your relation will improve.” I thanked them for their advice.


	2. Transformation

Days turned into weeks and even longer. As I was not allowed to leave the palace, I got to know its halls and staircases quite well, wandering through them for hours. The rest of the time I spend doing the things a Queen was supposed to do. Dress prettily, consume expensively and chat with my ladies in waiting. It had been a while since I saw the King. I wondered when I had stopped calling him my husband.

A murmur came from one of the rooms. I knew that it was the map room for planning and strategizing. Usually it was locked. I had no business in there anyway. But now there was someone in there, and my heart beat in excitement. Was it the King?

I peeked into the room, but something kept me from entering just yet. My instinct was correct: there he was. Surrounded by maps and drawings and other such things, the King stood with his back to the door. Two soldiers of the royal guard were with him. They hadn’t noticed my presence yet.

“Is the plan clear to both of you?” He said to the guards. Had he always had such a sneer in his voice? I couldn’t see clearly what he was pointing at, a sketch with spots of red. “This night,” The king continued, “This kingdom will no longer have a Queen.” And with those words, he dragged his twisted fingers over his neck in a crude gesture.

I felt like I had been hit by lightning. I couldn’t believe it. Such language was fit for a villain, or a traitor, or a monster. Not the King. But his words left little to misinterpret. I reviewed my memories: but I couldn’t think of a single thing I could have done wrong. I had never asked too many questions or broken a rule. 

I twirled back against the wall. But if I had never broken the script I was meant to follow, that could only mean one thing: The King didn’t plan my assasination because he had to. It was because he could change the story whenever he felt like it. With this insight that rocked my worldview, I peered into the room again.

The King and his two guards whispered the final words to their complot, then with a sharp noise they pulled out their weapons. Ready for murder. Suddenly, they fell silent and the King looked over his shoulder. Had my gasp been that audible? I kept silent for a moment longer, then my instincts took over. Run to safety. 

Faster than I had ever walked through these halls- of course, a queen never ran.- I stormed down the hall and off the staircase. At the end of the spiral a familiar face appeared in my sight- Valerie. “Please come!” I begged, and before she could respond I had grabbed her wrist and tugged her with me. Past the kitchens, past the servants’ quarters, where I noticed Anna. I gestured wildly for her to come with as well. 

The three of us ran into the Queen’s quarters, my bedroom. “Your majesty? What is going on?” Anna asked, always the bolder of the two. But Valerie’s eyes reflected the same question. I took a few breaths, hoping my heart would stop beating so fast. “I don’t know why, but I overheard the King.. And he is planning to assassinate me!” Both my friends gasped in shock. But they didn’t seem to doubt me: I was grateful. Since my discovery my whole world seemed to be uncertain- Like I had to test everything to see if it was real. But the friendship with my ladies in waiting was real. 

“He broke.. the script. Went out of his role.” I whispered, not entirely sure yet what that meant yet. “He is the King, but he does things that do not fit that title.” I caught a glance of myself in my mirror and stept forward. I looked distraught, lost, confused. “But does that mean.. I do not have to follow the rules anymore either?”

I took a deep breath, and noticed my ladies behind me, nodding encouragingly. “You do not have to, my lady.” Valerie said thoughtfully. “Not anymore. If he breaks his promise to be your King, then you can break yours: to be his queen.”

“Then I won’t be needing this anymore.” I reached for my crown, and hesitated for just a moment: it had been on my head every day since my marriage to the King. I couldn’t even imagine how it had to feel without its familiar weight pressing down on me. But then I gripped it, lifting it off and putting it in a decorated tray. And with it, another, heavier weight was lifted from my shoulders. I had become someone else. Not sure who yet.

I gazed back into the mirror, now with more confidence. The King might form a complot against me, but I would be prepared to defend myself. “Help me out of this dress.” And they did, yanking off the veil first. I was not sad to see it go: now I could see my world much clearer. Then the strings of my corset were quickly loosened, allowing me to relax more and breathe freely, now that I did not have to confirm to this standard of beauty.

Finally, my pink silk dress fell crumpled to the floor. I didn’t care anymore about its worth, if it would tear or get dirty. Anna and Valerie followed my example: their dresses were easier to remove than mine. Anna noticed my bare shoulders, and fetched me my evening vest. I looked at my reflection again. I began to like my new appearance. But.. Something was still missing.

I walked over to my bedside, suddenly remembering that I had left there something to defend myself with. When I would be attacked by villains or traitors. I hadn’t thought I would ever actually use it.. I took out the long rapier and felt its blade. Still sharp. Anna couldn’t hide her grin. “That looks wonderful, my lady!” Valerie looked more concerned. “Do you know how to use that?” I moved my arm up and down, then took a few swings at the air. The sword felt familiar in my hands. “I..Think so?” I grinned. “It feels like it.”


	3. Climax

Before I could say anything else, the chapel bells chimed. The sign for curfew and, the signal that the King would arrive soon, thinking I had gone to sleep already.   
For a moment, it was chaos. I wanted to slip into bed, but a glance at Anna with the dress changed my mind. “Put it beneath the blanket.” I said. “He will expect me there.” Anna nodded and Valerie miracled a wig from somewhere, completing the ruse. “Now hide, shh!” My ladies raced to opposite sides of the room: Anna behind the heavy curtain and Valerie behind the high headboard. As for myself, I crouched on the opposite side of the room, in the shadows. With the bed and the bump in it in plain view. 

We didn’t have to wait for long. Just a few moments after we had gone in hiding, my room door opened and the three men appeared. The guards remained at the door, keeping watch to let no one leave or enter. The King himself had his sword raised and quietly approached the bed. I could feel my heart beating in my chest as he readied, swung his sword and violently stabbed the dress posing as my sleeping body.

At that moment, I moved swiftly and crossed my sword with his. We made eye contact. In any other situation, the bemused face of the King would have been hilarious: but not now. Not now I showed a different side of myself. 

We stepped back from the bed at the same time, and crossed swords again and again. Muscle memories from fencing lessons I couldn’t seem to remember guided my movements and attacks. 

From the corner of my eye, I noticed movement of the guards: obviously, they had not expected a fight to happen. For a moment I was worried I would be quickly outnumbered, but then my maids moved from their hiding place, forming an obstacle for the guards. I squeezed the handle of my rapier a little tighter, not able to show my great thanks in any other way.

But I had to keep my attention on my attacker, who was swinging wildly and seemingly unprepared for the fight he was having. A thought occurred to me and I rotated my wrist in an intricate move, sliding his sword away and pointing mine at his chest. Checkmate.

That is to say, it would have been checkmate if he had played by the rules. Which I had discovered today, the King did not. He dashed. I rolled my eyes in annoyance, at him but also at myself: of course he would be unpredictable. 

The King fled towards the staircase and I followed him quickly, leaving the guards and ladies in waiting fighting in my bedroom. There I came too close and forced him into a fight again, swinging back and forth. Even though I was at a disadvantage by standing lower, I still managed to block his attacks and force him to move back.

A flash of pain spread from my nose, from the side I had not been watching. He used my distraction to flee again, as I felt something liquid drip out of my nose. I touched it. Blood. It took me a moment to process it: the King, once my everything, had broken the rules once again by fighting unfairly and not caring if I would get hurt or not. I looked at the direction in which he had disappeared, and felt something snap in me, feeling my heart turn cold as ice. Alright. Fine. I would not care anymore about fairness either. 

I could see my breath in the chilling evening air as I came onto the roof. Soon enough I saw the King trying to hide in the darkness, and chased after him. The edge of the castle walls came closer. “You can’t escape from me!” I spit at him as our swords crossed again, feeling my anger burn under my skin. “It’s not fair!” He wheezed, out of breath and whining like a spoiled kid. “This is MY story! I decide what happens!” With another sickening clash of our swords we stood eye to eye once again. “Not anyMORE!” And I pushed him backwards. He fell and fell kept falling- his scream kept ringing in my ears long after he vanished from sight.

A cold shiver went through me. I looked down, trying to keep my breathing back under control. My heart felt like it was going to jump out of my ribcage. What had I done? The King was gone. And something told me he wasn’t going to return ever again. 

Even when he wasn’t in the castle, the King had always been present in a way: his orders and wishes in the whispers of the servants and the expensive gifts I would find in my room. But now the air seemed to turn colder. The moon hid its light. And in that moment, standing on the castle wall with a rapier in my hand, the realisation slowly hit me. I had killed the King. The protagonist, the director, the conductor of the story and the creator of everything I was aware of. 

I had become the Villain.


	4. Aftermath

I looked over my shoulder. The palace I had called my home ever since my marriage, ever since I could remember, really.. It looked empty and eerie. Along with me, it had transformed.

I strode inside again, back into the Queen’s quarters. The lifeless bodies guards were laying on the floor. Anna and Valerie looked at me with unreadable expressions: they must have felt the change in the atmosphere as well. It was difficult to ignore after all. I stept over one of the guards and met my own eyes in the mirror. My reflection had a cold grin around her lips. “My friends.” I said. “I have figured it out. I am the Villain.” 

In the reflection, I saw my maidens step back. “My lady.. Are you certain?” Valerie asked. “Are you sure you aren’t like, the Heroine? You have defended yourself against your attacker after all.” Anna added, a hopeful glimmer in her eyes. “No.” I said softly. “I crossed the line when I killed him, I felt it. He.. He was the creator.” My friends stared at me in disbelief. 

I took a deep breath, and let out a giggle. “I felt something. Magic. He has controlled our world from the beginning. Look.” I concentrated, and felt energy flow to my handpalm. As I waved it around me, a trail of golden light followed it, and my white clothes were transformed into a long black dress. Anna and Valerie gasped. 

I turned to the mirror again, proud of my new power. “My lady..” Valerie’s reflection looked at me, almost desperate.”This isn’t right.” Anna nodded in agreement.“Please, if you are the villain then we can’t-”

A moment of silence, I studied the intricate lace on my sleeve. “Then you cannot.. what, Anna?” Only then I turned away from the mirror. The room was dark and empty. “Anna? Valerie?!” I looked around- surely, this had to be some kind of prank right? Usually my maidens would come running to attend to my every need. The castle didn’t respond. My eye suddenly catched the glistening of my crown, still on the dresser where I had left it. It was twinkling invitingly in the moonlight, and I rushed over.

“I’m sorry!” I shouted into the darkness, “I will be Queen again, I promise!” The crown was on my head again, heavy and restricting, I felt panic rising. “NO!!” I screamed. “Please, no, come back, you were the only ones I could talk to!! Come back! I’ll be the Queen! Don’t make me be the Villain! Don’t- ” I took a shaky breath as I realised I was all alone, that nobody would hear my pleadings. I felt sick and collapsed onto my bed, sobbing. “Please..”  
I said, not knowing who I was talking to. “Don’t make me be the Bad Guy...”


	5. Epilogue

The black stone and rubble crumbled when climbed. A young man, no, a teenager looked up at the eerie and sinister site of an old castle. But for Prince Roman, no adventure was too big. He tapped his sheath in a reflex: alright. Still easy to grab.

He had no memory of this castle, which was hidden deep in a forest and surrounded by thorny bushes. But nothing in the Imagination just sprung into existence: it must have been created by Creativity, in the time before he split. Roman felt a shiver down his spine. That meant this castle was possibly the oldest building in the Imagination that was still standing.

The front gate was closed shut. So Roman chose the next best option, climb over the walls. Tugging himself up while dust and debris came loose, he managed to get onto the balcony. He grinned and caught his breath, the rush of adrenaline feeling amazing as always. But now the castle itself.. He took his katana and opened the door with a squeak. 

A dark room with only a few flickering candles lit: a bedroom, judging by the bed and big vanity mirror. As Roman looked around however, he noticed that the bed posts had collapsed and the mirror was shattered, as if someone had punched it in a fit of rage. He couldn’t shake the feeling that.. someone was watching him.

He turned around, swinging his katana to a dark corner of the room. A silhouette moved in front of the candles and Roman could make out a pair of horns protruding from its head. Roman’s eyes widened as the person came into the light: it was a woman, wearing a dark dress. She stared at him, or maybe at his raised sword. “Who are you?” Roman said, not trying to show that she had scared him. 

“I can ask the same of you, Intruder.” She said, her hands folded in front of her. “I am Prince Roman!” The teen proclaimed. “Now you!” The woman seemed to think for a moment, as if she’d forgotten her name. Ultimately, she shaked her head. “I was the Queen once, but that name does not fit me anymore.”

Roman kept his sword raised, not trusting her fully yet. Every figment ever created had a name, a Role which they forfilled. But a Queen? “Why would past me make a Queen.” He said, squinting his eyes. “I’m gay. And so is Thomas.” “Who is Thomas?” A moment of silence. Roman didn’t want to explain the figment’s existence to itself. Remus had done that once, and it didn’t end well. 

The woman sighed, and walked towards the broken mirror. “Wait-” She stopped and turned to Roman again. “You said you were a Prince? Is there a new King?” Roman started to feel a bit uncomfortable, taking a step back to the hallway he’d come from. This figment was not acting their Role. “No?” He said. “There’s only me and my twin brother, the Duke. But before we were spilt...The King you mean must have been the past Creativity.” Roman saw a spark in the woman’s eyes. “Split?! So the King didn’t Die? He just..split in two, and left me here?!” Roman took another few steps back, glad he had never lowered his sword. 

The lady looked furious, and she focused her gaze on Roman again. “Don’t you dare! I’ve been in this castle alone, paying the price I thought was well deserved, and- You tell me hadn’t even killed him?!” Roman looked at her with big eyes and realised that this was no ordinary figment, this woman had caused Creativity to split! “Sorry-” He squeaked out and immediately regretted his decision to speak.

“You know.. Now that you are here, I should finish what I started.” The woman spat as she stepped closer, her hand suddenly lighting up with a strange golden light. Magic, Roman recognised. Figments were not supposed to have magic!! “Then maybe I will finally deserve the title of Villain!!”

The magic grew into a sword and Roman blocked it with his Katana. He had to get out, Right Now- This was a fight he might not be able to win. He blocked her vicious strikes, one after the other and stepped back, one foot after the other. Back to the balcony, back to the walls of the castle. The sparks flew back and forth, and almost scorched the white tunic Roman was wearing. 

The Villain- That was her title- had a maniacal grin around her lips. She thought she had him cornered, But Roman pushed her back for a moment and then turned around, jumping off the castle wall himself.

The fall was not as long as it once must have been: the rubble and the vegetation broke the fall of the young prince. He scrambled upright with just a few scratches, and took off running, back into the forest. 

He couldn’t wait to tell Remus and the others about his dangerous encounter. A Villain, hidden in her broken down castle. A lady with horns who cast magic. A Dragon Witch.


End file.
